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Thursday, December 08, 2016

Poetry Friday -- Some Days

Some days you have to turn off the news
and listen to the bird or truck
or the neighbor screaming out her life.
You have to close all the books and open
all the windows so that whatever swirls
inside can leave and whatever flutters
against the glass can enter. Some days
you have to unplug the phone and step
out to the porch and rock all afternoon
and allow the sun to tell you what to do.
The whole day has to lie ahead of you
like railroad tracks that drift off into gravel.
Some days you have to walk down the wooden
staircase through the evening fog to the river,
where the peach roses are closing,
sit on the grassy bank and wait for the two geese.

Some days when you have to turn off the news, you write. We've been having lots of fun with #haikuforhealing. Heidi said it best:

a fine kettle of

hawks we have here,

rising on hot air

Outsiders have joined in. There's been a poem in Turkish, and one from @broetry.

Hey, we set a record -- the Poetry Friday Roundup Host schedule for January-June 2017 filled up in a single week! Thanks, everyone! Here it is. If you need the code, just shout and I'll email it to you.

21 comments:

Hi Mary Lee, I have taken a screenshot of the poem you just shared and edited it using an iPhone app - will share now in our GatheringBooks page and link up to your post. I just find it so timely, spoke to my soul today.

Oh! I love, love, love this poem! I'm especially entranced by the image of rocking all afternoon and allowing the sun to tell me what to do. Thanks so much for sharing, Mary Lee. I'm going to print this out and tuck it in my notebook to read and reread.

We women have a harder time just rocking on the porch, I feel. Yet, it's important for us, too. I love that many are joining in on the December Haiku. I mentioned it on my site, too, and some of my readers said they would check it out. I hope they do. We can all use some contemplation, reverie and appreciation of nature and it's tiniest details.

I love this poem and the sentiments. I have to force myself lately, to sit to write. I've acquired more energy and find it more difficult to sit still for long! But the idea of sitting and letting the day speak to you is how I like to live. Going to check out the Haiku challenge, even though I'm way late. It may get me sitting in my writer's chair again.

This poem should be much more famous--thanks for unearthing a hidden gem, and thanks for the shout-out. The beauty of nature will save us all (unless...oh, go outside, Heidi). And thanks a LOT for rounding up the schedule!

Oh, this should be each day for me! I especially enjoy the strong verbs throughout your poem. They suggest the action one might take. Thank you for sharing Mary Lee! Please do email me the code for the new PF schedule.

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About Us

Franki and Mary Lee are both teachers, and have been for more than 20 years.

Franki is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Beyond Leveled Books (Stenhouse), Still Learning to Read (Stenhouse), Day-to-Day Assessment in the Reading Workshop (Scholastic) and The Joy of Planning (Choice Literacy). She is also a regular contributor to Choice Literacy.

Mary Lee is a fifth grade teacher. She is the author of Reconsidering Read-Aloud (Stenhouse) and has poems in the Poetry Friday Anthology, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, the Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations (Pomelo Books), Dear Tomato: An International Crop of Food and Agriculture Poems, National Geographic Books of Nature Poems, The Best of Today's Little Ditty (2014-15 and 2016), and Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Poems are Teachers.